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When purchasing a property with the benefit of a mortgage it is usual for the purchaser's solicitors to also act for the purchaser's lender.

In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Accreditation Scheme. Your solicitors should contact Whistletree and see if they can apply for membership of the Whistletree conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable Whistletree will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You are not legally obliged to appoint a law firm on the Whistletree conveyancing panel and you may continue to use your own solicitors, in which case it will likely add costs, and it will likely delay the transaction as you are adding another lawyer into the mix.

You should not exchange unless you have advised to do so by your lawyer. A precondition to being on the Whistletree approved panel is to comply with the CML Handbook requirements (last updated for this lender on Whistletree). The CML Conveyancing Handbook requires that your lawyer have the appropriate Disclosure of Incentive form completed by the developer and accepted by your lender.

The firms themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Whistletree conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Whistletree directly.

This is a rare situation indeed. Most lender Terms of Conveyancing Panel Appointment specifically oblige the solicitor to inform the lender of an address change. Your solicitor needs to treat this with the utmost urgency. Do speak with or register your concern with the senior partner (assuming he or she is not your direct lawyer). Most lenders would be reasonable in this situation and expedite the resolution of this issue. It may be prudent to enlist the help of your local Whistletree branch or your mortgage broker to see if they can assist.

In the main there are no requirements by lenders for their firms to operate on a no-sale-no-fee basis. There a small number of lenders who operate a very restricted conveyancing panel managed by a third party company (often termed in the industry as a ‘gatekeeper’). That third party may impose certain conditions such as non-sale-no fee on the panel firms. If you require this as a condition of your conveyancing then you should check with the conveyancing firm that this is part of their package

You will need to appoint solicitors independently although you'll need to choose one on the Whistletree conveyancing panel. The solicitor represents both you and the Whistletree through the process.

Whistletree will need an independent valuation of the property. Your lawyer will not arrange this. Usually Whistletree will appoint their own surveyor to do this, and you will have to pay for it. Remember that this is a valuation for mortgage purposes and not a survey. You may wish to consider appointing your own surveyor to carry out a survey or prepare a home buyers report on the property. It is up to you to satisfy yourself that the property is structurally sound before you buy it. If the survey or report reveals that building work is needed, you should tell your solicitor. You may wish to renegotiate with the seller. or Your lawyer will not organise the survey but they may be able to put you in touch with a local one that they recommend. RICS offers a find a surveyor service (just google it) where you can search for a qualified surveyor by postcode. As you are getting a mortgage with Whistletree you could contact your them to see if they have a list of approved surveyors.